


I’m Only Human

by Anonymous6285



Category: The Beatles (Band)
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26208415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anonymous6285/pseuds/Anonymous6285
Summary: Brian got back to the hotel late, and Ringo’s looking for the Tylenol for George.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	I’m Only Human

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I’m like 99% sure Tylenol wasn’t a thing in the 60s. Oh well

Ringo padded down the hall, wondering how mad Brian would be at him for waking him up. Of course, it would have never been his intention, but he couldn’t find the tylenol anywhere, and George was way too miserable to fall asleep. 

So he did what he thought would be the best idea. Even though he knew that Brian had been out late… he’d definitely be grumpy. But he still knocked on the door and waited a few seconds before walking in. He carefully and quietly made his way over to the bed, but found that their manager wasn’t even in it.

“Eppy?” he said out loud, looking around the room to find him and only being met with a small sniffle.

“Go away,” he heard the man’s groggy voice come from the toilet across the room, and he hurried over to it.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, noticing that the door was slightly ajar. “Are you crying?”

“Richie, please, could you just leave?” He let out a shaky breath, but Ringo wasn’t about to just leave him here, upset.

“If you don’t tell me what’s wrong, then I’m not leaving.” He was met with silence. “Can I come in?” Once again Brian said nothing. “Okay, I’m going to come in unless you tell me not to.”

Against his better judgement, Brian didn’t want the younger man to leave, so he kept his mouth shut, aching for some kind of comfort. The door was pushed open in seconds, and Ringo was suddenly face to face with his manager, curled up across from the toilet, tears streaking down his cut cheek, mixed in with blood.

“Christ, Eppy! What happened?!” He knelt down to get a better look at the man’s beaten face. “God, who did this to you?”

“Just some guys… look, it’s really nothing. I swear. It just hurts a bit.”

Ringo’s eyebrows knitted together. “Love, you’re crying. Is it really that bad? I’ll help you fix it up, okay?” 

“Rich…”

Ringo was already getting up and tearing off a small piece of toilet paper in his hand. “It’s fine. It’ll only take a second.” He got down to the ground again and placed the thin piece of tissue over the cut. The blood still dripping from the man’s face was enough to keep it on there, and the drummer started digging through the cabinet for a bandage of some sort.

“What are you doing in here? It’s late. Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Ringo found one and crawled back over to Brian.

“I just came to see if you knew where the tylenol was. George has a bit of a fever, and he’s having a hard time falling asleep.” As he spoke, he pulled the toilet paper off of the cut to see that it was no longer bleeding, and he put the bandage over it.

“O-oh, I think I had some in my bag.” He wanted to get up and help find it, but he found himself just sighing instead.

“Does it still hurt?” he heard Ringo say, and he shook his head. “Then why are you still crying?” He hadn’t even noticed he was, but Ringo was quick to wipe away his tears and blood.

“Look, something bad happened tonight, and…” He started to tear up thinking about it. “Well, it’s not really important.” 

But then the drummer was sitting next to him, wrapping his arm around his back, and he couldn’t help but burst into tears, leaning into Ringo’s shoulder. “Hey, I’ve got you.”

“I’m sorry. You should probably get back to George.” He was too exhausted to pull himself up.

“Not until I know you’re alright. You don’t have to tell me what happened, yeah? I understand that there are certain things that some of us would like to keep private, but… whatever it was… I’m sorry it happened.”

“God, Rich… you’re amazing.” He sobbed, hugging him. “It really wasn’t anything, though… Just some guy at this bar. I thought he was into me. He was nice and we were having a great time, but… well, he was just trying to get me in a place where a good punch to the face was sure to hurt a lot more.” Ringo rubbed his back gently. “Called me a fag, said I was dirty and perverted. The usual, I suppose.”

“Eppy, he was just a douche. Too meddled in his own toxic masculinity to care about anybody else.” That earned a good laugh from the older man, and Ringo leaned into him. “But that’s not your fault, okay? I promise. Hate is an awful disease, but it’s not something that’s easy to cure.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I just need to stop letting people get to me. I just need to forget about it.”

As the manager pulled off of Ringo and wiped the back of his hand over his eyes, Ringo shook his head. “No. Don’t just forget about it. Just remember how much stronger you are because of it. You just need to know that you’re above those kind of people.”

Brian chuckled, standing up. “I think I should go get the tylenol for George now.”

“Oh, yeah…” Ringo smiled and followed him to his bag, and as he watched him rummage through it, he sighed. “You know you’re a great person, right?” Brian hummed. “I hope that one day, you find somebody that just sees that you’re human, just like the rest of us.”

Brian rolled his eyes. “I’ve got plently of people just like that, you know?” Ringo stilled, but Brian handed him the tylenol. “You happen to be one of them, yeah?” Tears were still falling down his face, but Ringo had decided that he would be alright now. 

“I love you, Brian. I hope you know that.”

“I know, Richie.” He glanced down at the bottle in the drummer’s hands. “He only gets two of those, okay? We can’t have our Georgie getting even more sick.”

“Right,” Ringo laughed. “Well, goodnight, then.”

“Thanks.”


End file.
